RU2317653C1 - Method for reproduction of video data and graphic data from data carrier - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: methods for reproduction of graphic data from data carrier for displaying on-screen menu.

SUBSTANCE: in accordance to the invention, data carrier stores a stream of interactive graphic data reproduced on request, which is activated in response to user command. Effect is achieved by decoding graphic data and outputting decoded graphic data, where decoded data is outputted in response to activation command, if the data is the first graphic data, or outputted in a certain time, if decoded data is the second graphic data.

EFFECT: ensured reproduction from data carrier by means of extension of function of interactive graphic data stream to support interaction with user.

5 cl, 26 dwg

Description

FIELD OF TECHNOLOGY

The present invention relates to reproducing a multimedia image from a data medium that stores a stream of interactive graphic data displayed in response to a user command.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

To reproduce the multimedia image on the storage medium, audio-visual (AV) data of the multimedia image, navigation data controlling the reproduction of the AV data, and system data that includes control information related to the header of the AV data that will be initially reproduced when the medium is recorded are recorded. data is inserted into the playback device. Other data may also be recorded on the storage medium. In particular, the AV data is recorded on a storage medium by multiplexing video data, audio data, subtitles and menus as a main stream.

Figure 1 presents a structural diagram of a generalized AV data recorded on a data medium.

According to FIG. 1, on a multimedia image storage medium, a video stream 102, an audio stream 104, a presentation graphic data stream 106 for providing subtitles, and an interactive graphic data stream 108 for providing an on-screen menu are multiplexed (MP) and recorded as a main stream. Hereinafter, the multiplexed main stream is referred to as AV data 110.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a generalized reproducing apparatus for reproducing AV data from a data medium 200 on which AV data 110 is recorded.

2, a reproducing apparatus for reproducing a multimedia image reads navigation data as described above and obtains control information required for reproducing AV data 110. For example, control information includes a coding type of AV data 110, a flow rate, information, the indicating area in which the AV data 110 is recorded, and the type of data that includes the AV data 110. Using the control information, the reader 210, the demultiplexer 220, and decoders are controlled , data presentation, interactive graphics, and audio data 230, 240, 250 and 260, respectively.

More specifically, as shown in FIG. 1 and 2, a reader 210 reads the multiplexed AV data 110 from the data medium 200 using information indicating a region in which the AV data 110 is recorded, and transmits the multiplexed AV data 110 to the demultiplexer 220. The demultiplexer 220 divides the received AV data 110 to the video stream 102, the audio stream 104, the presentation graphic data stream 106 and the interactive graphic data stream 108 and transmits the divided streams 102-108 to the decoders 230-260, respectively. Each stream transmitted to the corresponding decoder is decoded according to the corresponding data type and is ready for display on the screen at a specific time. The decoded video stream 102, presentation graphic data stream 106 and / or interactive graphic data stream 108 are superimposed on top of each other as one image using the mixing unit 270. Finally, an image selected on the basis of the user-set output status is displayed on the screen. For example, the output state can be controlled based on a user selection such as a subtitle on / off state and a mute state, etc.

In particular, the interactive graphic data decoder 250 receives the interactive graphic data stream 108 from the data medium 200, decodes the interactive graphic data stream 108, and at a certain time displays an on-screen menu including buttons on the screen. The choice of the user may be input through a specific user-selected button on the displayed OSD menu. In this way, a user interaction function can be provided.

However, a conventional playback device always displays an on-screen menu at a certain time, even if the user does not want to see the menu when playing back multimedia data such as movies. If an unnecessary OSD is displayed when watching a movie, then the user may experience inconvenience.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to the present invention, there is provided a method for reproducing from a storage medium on which an on-demand interactive graphic data stream is stored, activated in response to a user command by expanding the interactive graphic data stream function to support a user interaction operation.

A storage medium according to the present invention comprises video data and graphic data for displaying an on-screen menu superimposed on an image displayed on the basis of the video data. The graphic data includes the first graphic data displayed on the screen when the activation command is generated by the user.

The graphic data may also include second graphic data displayed on the screen at a specific time.

The first and second graphic data may have identical or similar structures that include a field so that they can be distinguished from each other.

The first and second graphic data may have a graphics_segment structure, which includes a segment_type field defining the first and second values of the graphic data type, respectively.

The first and second graphic data may have an interactive_graphic_segment structure, which includes such a field so that it can be distinguished from each other.

The first graphic data may have an on_demand_interactive_graphic structure different from the structure of the second graphic data. The on_demand_interactive_graphic structure may include information related to the initial (initial) menu page indicating that the first graphic data is decoded and ready for display, and information relating to at least one menu page to be displayed when the user is an activation team has been formed. Each menu page may include information for displaying at least one button and information related to a command that will be executed when the user selects this button.

The first graphic data may be multiplexed with video data and recorded in a single stream, or the first graphic data and second graphic data may be multiplexed with video data and recorded in a single stream.

The first graphic data and the second graphic data can be multiplexed with video data and recorded in a single stream, and object data that is used by the first graphic data and indicate an on-screen menu image can be included and recorded in an independent stream.

A device for reproducing from said medium of video data and graphic data for displaying a menu superimposed on an image displayed on the basis of video data, comprises a video decoder that decodes the video data; and a graphic data decoder that decodes the graphic data. The graphic data decoder decodes the first displayed graphic data when the graphic data is of the indicated type and an activation command is received. The second graphic data is displayed at a specific time when the graphic data does not belong to the first type.

The device may further comprise a mixing unit superimposed on top of each other decoded video data and decoded graphic data, and an interface transmitting a user command to the graphic data decoder.

A reproducing method for reproducing a storage medium that stores video data and graphic data for displaying an on-screen menu superimposed on an image displayed on the basis of the video data may include decoding the graphic data, and based on these decoded graphic data, outputting the decoded graphic data, when the user generated an activation command, or the output of decoded graphic data at a specific time.

In addition, a method for reproducing an interactive graphic data stream from a data medium may include reading the interactive graphic data stream from the data medium; decoding a read stream of interactive graphic data; determining the type of read interactive graphic data stream, and mixing the decoded interactive graphic data stream with video data and displaying mixed data at a specific time, if the decoded interactive graphic data stream is a standard interactive graphic data stream, or displaying mixed data upon receipt of an activation command if the decoded stream Interactive graphic data is a stream of interactive graphic data on demand.

The interactive graphic data decoder includes a graphic data stream processor that decodes a received interactive graphic data stream and transmits button image object data and button configuration information after decoding; a coded data buffer that temporarily stores an interactive graphic data stream and then transfers the interactive graphic data stream to a graphic data stream processor; an object buffer that receives button image object data; a forming buffer that receives button configuration information; a graphic image controller that creates an image for display using the data stored in the object buffer and the formation buffer, and transfers the received image from the object buffer to the plane of the graphic images.

Additional and / or other aspects and advantages of the present invention are presented in the following description, arise from this description or can be studied in the practical implementation of this invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention is illustrated in the following description of embodiments illustrated by the drawings, in which the following is presented:

FIG. 1 is a representation of conventional AV data recorded on a storage medium;

FIG. 2 is a representation of a conventional reproducing apparatus for reproducing a storage medium on which AV data is recorded;

FIG. 3 shows a configuration of an interactive graphic data stream according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a representation of a reproduction operation of a stream of standard interactive graphic data;

FIG. 5A and 5B are views illustrating an on-demand interactive graphic data stream playback operation according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6A-6C illustrate a method for distinguishing an on-demand interactive graphic data stream according to one embodiment of the present invention from a standard interactive graphic data stream;

FIG. 7 illustrates a method for distinguishing an on-demand interactive graphic data stream according to another embodiment of the present invention from a standard interactive graphic data stream;

FIG. 8 illustrates a method for distinguishing an on-demand interactive graphic data stream according to another embodiment of the present invention from a standard interactive graphic data stream;

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a reproducing apparatus for reproducing an on-demand interactive graphic data stream according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of a reproducing apparatus for reproducing an on-demand interactive graphic data stream according to another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 11A-11D are interactive graphic data streams that include AV data according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 12 is a configuration of a player status register recording information related to an interactive graphic data stream according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 13 is a configuration of a player status register recording information related to an interactive graphic data stream according to another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 14 - a process for processing a user-generated command to activate an interactive graphic data stream on demand;

FIG. 15A and 15B are an illustration of a display state according to the values of the disp_flag flag for the configurations of the player status register shown in FIG. 12 and 13, respectively;

FIG. 16 is a system menu of a reproducing apparatus in which menu items are defined for turning on / off output of an interactive graphic data stream on demand;

FIG. 17 is a schematic illustration of a remote control including a button for turning on / off the output of an interactive graphic data stream on demand;

FIG. 18 is a flowchart of a method for reproducing a data medium on which an interactive graphic data stream is recorded according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 19 is a detailed flowchart of a method for reproducing a data medium on which an on-demand interactive graphic data stream is recorded, shown in FIG. eighteen.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

Embodiments of the present invention are described in detail below with reference to the drawings, in which like reference numbers refer to like elements throughout.

As used herein, a standard interactive graphic data stream refers to a data stream that provides an on-screen menu at a specific time. In addition, the on-demand interactive graphic data stream refers to a data stream that provides an on-screen menu that is displayed only when desired by the user.

FIG. 3 shows a configuration of an interactive graphic data stream according to one embodiment of the present invention.

According to FIG. 3, the interactive graphic data stream is divided into sampling periods according to how the decoder works. Information for reproducing a button on an on-screen menu that includes a plurality of buttons is called an interactive graphic. All interactive graphic objects, which includes the sampling period, are decoded and stored in the object buffer of the interactive graphic data decoder, which is described below, and until the data of the subsequent sampling period is entered, it contains the stored objects. Accordingly, in one sampling period, an interactive graphic object should not be decoded every time it is used, and already decoded and stored interactive graphic objects can be reused. However, when the subsequent sampling period begins after one sampling period has ended, all decoder buffers are flushed and all stored data disappears. In addition, the time after which the decoder buffer is reset is defined as a set time.

Display sets are defined as the output basic elements of interactive graphic objects, as shown in FIG. 3. The display set indicates a set of interactive graphic objects displayed on one screen, and one sampling period may include at least one display set. There are three types of display sets. The first set is a sampling period start (ES) display set indicating the start of a sampling period, including all data for outputting interactive graphic images, such as configuration information for interactive graphic images required to configure interactive graphic images, and object data used for image buttons. The second set is the detection point display (AP) set, which can exist after the ES display set and which includes all the information for configuring the interactive graphic data to prepare for a situation such as a user-defined random search. The third set is a normal state display (NC) set, which includes data that must be changed as part of the interactive graphic data of the previous display set, i.e. only the data that needs to be updated. As shown in FIG. 3, one sampling period may include multiple display sets. The ES mapping set exists in the initial part of the sampling period, and the mapping sets AP and NC are located at subsequent locations. The ES mapping set is required for each sampling period, and the AP and NC mapping sets are optional.

Each display set includes a forming segment storing configuration information of the interactive graphic data stream, a plurality of determination segments, in each of which object data, such as a real image of a button displayed on the screen, and an ending segment indicating the end of the display set are recorded. The forming segment includes output end time information, button configuration information, and operation information that indicates how the reproducing apparatus responds to the user's operation. The shaping segment may be implemented using the data structure of the interactive shaping segment (ICS). The determination segment includes an object definition segment (ODS), which includes object data containing button image information, and a palette determination segment (PDS) including color information configured for ODS.

Each segment in one display set is recorded in a packetized elementary stream (PES), which is an elementary packet of the transport stream (TS) of MPEG-2 (moving picture expert group standard) information. The corresponding display set is decoded at the decoding time point indicated by the decoding time stamp (DTS) included in the PES and displayed on the screen at the playback time point indicated by the playback time stamp (PTS). In addition, the end time of the output when the output of the corresponding display set is completed is determined using the value of the composition_time_out_pts field recorded in ICS, which indicates the data structure of the generation segment.

Accordingly, the interactive graphic data stream is displayed on the screen at a specific time indicated by PTS, a user command is received, an operation is performed in response to it, and the interactive graphic data stream disappears from the screen at a certain end time indicated by the composition_time_out_pts field. However, if the interactive graphic data stream is displayed using only a predetermined time, then the on-screen menu will certainly be displayed at a specific time, even if it is not desirable for the user. Thus, the OSD can be activated at another point in time, and not when it is desired by the user.

Therefore, according to one embodiment of the present invention, an on-demand interactive graphic data stream activated by a user command is determined by expanding the interactive graphic data stream function to perform a user interaction operation. In order to distinguish from an on-demand interactive graphic data stream defined in the present invention, an interactive graphic data stream that is output at a specific time is called a standard interactive graphic data stream.

A stream of standard interactive graphic data is displayed on the screen at a specific time and disappears at a later specified time. On the other hand, the on-demand interactive graphic data stream is displayed on the screen only when the activation command is generated by the user after all the data is decoded and ready for output and performs a certain operation in response to user input. Thus, as in the standard interactive graphic data stream, on-demand interactive graphic data stream, interactive graphic objects, such as buttons, can be displayed for the first time at the time determined by the PTS. However, in the on-demand interactive graphic data stream, buttons are not displayed on the screen unless the user enters a command to do this.

In the standard interactive graphic data stream, the composition_time_out_pts field indicates the time when the buttons are no longer displayed on the screen. However, in the on-demand interactive graphic data stream, the composition_time_out_pts field indicates the time when the button related data is removed from the decoder buffer. Thus, even if the user generates a button activation command after the end time of the output, since there is no longer an on-demand interactive graphic data stream to be activated, the activation command from the user is ignored.

FIG. 4, 5A and 5B illustrate differences in operation between a standard interactive graphic data stream (FIG. 4) and an on-demand interactive graphic data stream (FIGS. 5A and 5B) according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 shows an operation for reproducing a stream of standard interactive graphic data. According to FIG. 4 streams of standard interactive graphic data are multiplexed into AV data. Each decoded stream of standard interactive graphic data is displayed on the screen in accordance with the PTS mark (playback time stamp) included in the ICS of the ES display set. In this case, the user can navigate or select the buttons displayed on the screen. In accordance with the user command, the operation assigned to the button is performed.

For example, when navigating through buttons, the state of the button changes from the selected state to the unselected state, the displayed image of the button changes to correspond to the unselected state, and if the user selects a specific button, the operation corresponding to the control command assigned to the specific button is performed. In addition, if the command assigned to a specific button is a command to move the AV data to another location, even if the end time of the output (composition_time_out_pts) of the standard interactive graphic data stream has not yet been reached, the specific button disappears from the screen, and the AV data indicated by the move command are displayed on the screen. On the other hand, if the command assigned to a particular button is not a command to move the AV data to another location, and the command defined for the corresponding button is executed, then the output state of each button is maintained until the end time of the output (composition_time_out_pts) is reached, and when the end time output (composition_time_out_pts) is reached, the corresponding button disappears from the screen. Thus, the standard interactive graphic data stream is displayed on the screen at a certain time, and when the specific end time of the output is reached, the standard interactive graphic data stream disappears from the screen.

FIG. 5A and 5B show operations when an on-demand interactive graphic data stream is reproduced according to one embodiment of the present invention.

According to FIG. 5A, on-demand interactive graphic data streams are multiplexed into AV data. When the on-demand interactive graphic data stream is decoded, the on-demand interactive graphic data stream is ready to be activated. Even if the on-demand interactive graphic data stream is ready for activation, the corresponding button is displayed on the screen only if a user command is generated, in which case the user command can be accepted. The corresponding button displayed on the screen disappears from the screen when the output end time (composition_time_out_pts) is reached. In addition, all decoded data in the decoder buffer disappears when the end time of the output is reached by setting the sampling period to the value of the end time of the output. Therefore, the activation command entered by the user received after the end time of the output is ignored.

According to FIG. 5B, as in the case of the standard interactive graphic data stream shown in FIG. 4, the sampling period may end before the subsequent ICS ES mapping set is reached. In this case, since all relevant data in the decoder buffer is deleted when the subsequent ICS of the ES mapping set is reached, even if the output end time (composition_time_out_pts) has been reached, the corresponding data should not be deleted from the decoder. However, even if the menu activation command is generated by the user after reaching the output end time, the selected button is not played, confirming that the valid duration of the interactive display has ended. Thus, the user activation command received after the output end time is ignored.

As described above, the on-demand interactive graphic data stream and the standard interactive graphic data stream have an identical or similar data structure. However, the difference between the two streams is that the display of the button on the screen is determined by the user activation command in the interactive graphic data stream on demand and with the specified time in the standard interactive graphic data stream. Thus, if only information is added to distinguish between two types of interactive graphic data streams, the same data structure can be used to implement two types of interactive graphic data streams.

Additional methods for distinguishing an on-demand interactive graphic data stream from a standard interactive graphic data stream are as follows:

First way: a way to distinguish between these two streams using the segment_type ICS field.

Second way: a way to distinguish between these two streams by adding the ICS_type field to ICS.

Third way: a way to distinguish between these two streams by defining the On_demand_ICS structure as the new structure of the interactive graphic data stream on demand.

FIG. 6A-6C show a first method for distinguishing an on-demand interactive graphic data stream from a standard interactive graphic data stream.

According to FIG. 6A and 6B, the graphics_segment structure includes a segment_descriptor 602, which includes a segment_type 604 field indicating the type of segment. In FIG. 6C defines the types of segments that segment_type 604 can point to. In the first method, segment_type 604 can be defined so that the standard interactive graphic data stream (Normal_ICS) 606 is set to 0x18, and the on-demand interactive graphic data stream (On_demand_ICS) 607 has value 0x19. Thus, the first method distinguishes between two types of interactive graphic data streams using the segment_type 604 field when the two types of interactive graphic data streams have the same structure.

FIG. 7 shows a second method for distinguishing an on-demand interactive graphic data stream from a standard interactive graphic data stream.

According to FIG. 7, the standard and on-demand interactive graphic data streams have the same structure (interactive_composition_segment), and in the second method, two types of interactive graphic data streams are distinguished using the ICS_type 702 field. Thus, the ICS_type field is determined so that if the value of the ICS_type field is 0, then the ICS_type field indicates the standard interactive graphic data stream, and if the value of the ICS_type field is 1, then the ICS_type field indicates the interactive graphic data stream on demand.

FIG. 8 shows a third method for distinguishing an on-demand interactive graphic data stream from a standard interactive graphic data stream.

On Fig shows a newly defined structure On_demand_ICS. Unlike the first and second methods, in which the same structure is used, the third method defines a new structure of the flow of interactive graphic data on demand.

Unlike the standard interactive graphic data stream structure, the new on-demand interactive graphic data stream structure, the On_demand_ICS structure, defines pages for configuring operationally, for example, a menu start page that includes an initial button and which informs the user that the interactive graphic data stream on demand it is decoded and ready for activation by the user, and pages that include buttons that will be displayed after the stream is interactive s graphical activated on demand by the user, i.e., menu pages from first to nth. Each menu page to be displayed may include playback information of at least one button to be displayed and command information indicating which operation should be performed if the button is selected.

Based on an on-demand interactive graphic data stream according to the above-described embodiments, a configuration of a reproducing apparatus supporting an on-demand interactive graphic data stream according to one embodiment of the present invention is described below.

In FIG. 9 and 10 are structural diagrams of a reproducing apparatus for reproducing an on-demand interactive graphic data stream according to embodiments of the present invention.

In FIG. 9 shows an interactive graphic decoder 910 from a reproducing apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention. The data read from the AV data medium is input to a packet identifier (PID) filter 902, and only the interactive graphic data stream is selectively transmitted to the transport buffer 904 and decoded by the interactive graphic decoder 910.

In the interactive graphic decoder 910, the interactive graphic data stream is temporarily stored in the encoded data buffer 912 and then transmitted to the processor (processing unit) 914 of the graphic data stream. After the interactive graphic data stream is decoded by the graphic data stream processor 914, the button image object data is transmitted to the object buffer 916, and the button configuration information is transmitted to the generation buffer 918. The controller 920 graphic images creates output images for the received object data with reference to the corresponding configuration information and transfers the created image to the plane 930 graphic images. Thus, at the time point indicated by the initial time for outputting the PTS interactive graphic data stream, the graphic controller 920 determines the image to be displayed on the screen and transmits this specific image from the object buffer 916 to the graphic image plane 930. The transmitted image is displayed referring to the color lookup table 932 (CLUT) according to the color information that is included in the corresponding configuration information. In addition, the graphics controller 920 may change the state of the button according to navigation or the selection of the button in response to a user command and adjust this result for display.

More specifically, FIG. 9 shows a block diagram of a reproducing apparatus configured so that a standard interactive graphic data stream and an on-demand interactive graphic data stream use the same buffer memory. Since the two types of interactive graphic data streams use the same buffer of decoder 910, as shown in FIG. 9, only one of the streams, a standard interactive graphic data stream or an on-demand interactive graphic data stream, can exist in the buffer of the decoder 910 at a given time. Thus, only one type of interactive graphic data stream can be processed at a particular point in time.

10 is a structural diagram of a reproducing apparatus for reproducing an on-demand interactive graphic data stream according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 shows a reproducing device configured so that a standard interactive graphic data stream and an interactive graphic data stream, on demand, are stored in separate buffer memory units. Thus, the standard interactive graphic data stream is stored in the memory area of the standard ICS 1010, and the on-demand interactive graphic data stream is stored in the ICS memory area at the request of 1020. Therefore, two types of interactive graphic data streams can simultaneously exist in buffers. In this case, when the standard interactive graphic data stream is input in a state where the on-demand interactive graphic data stream exists in the buffer, or when the on-demand interactive graphic data stream is entered in the state when the standard interactive graphic data stream exists in the buffer, the decoder buffer memory should not be reset. However, when two types of interactive graphic data streams are simultaneously displayed on the screen, it may not be clear which object the user operation belongs to, and setting the color information to the screen configuration can be problematic. Therefore, although in FIG. 10 is not shown, the reproducing apparatus may further include a control unit selecting a standard interactive graphic data stream or an on-demand interactive graphic data stream to be output, and a corresponding CULT unit for the interactive graphic data stream.

FIG. 11 shows an interactive graphic data stream that includes AV data according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11A shows a case where only on-demand interactive graphic data streams are recorded in a single AV data stream. FIG. 11B shows a case where only standard interactive graphic data streams are recorded in a single AV data stream. FIG. 11C shows a case where two types of interactive graphic data streams are mixed and recorded into a single AV data stream. FIG. 11D shows a case where two types of interactive graphic data streams are mixed and recorded into one AV data, and on-demand interactive graphic data streams are separated from other AV data and recorded separately. In particular, as shown in FIG. 11D, when the AV data is read from the beginning, access the ICS data on demand recorded at the beginning of the AV data. However, when the AV data is read from the middle, since only the configuration information is recorded in the AV data, while the real image data of the button is recorded separately, this button is output using separately recorded object data with reference to the configuration information recorded in AV -data. In this case, the existence of unnecessary data redundancy can be prevented by recording object data separately.

Based on the data configurations of the on-demand interactive graphic data stream and the configurations of the reproducing apparatus described above, a process for outputting the on-demand interactive graphic data stream to the screen in accordance with a user activation command is described below.

FIG. 12 and 13 show configurations of player status registers for recording information related to an interactive graphic data stream according to embodiments of the present invention.

According to FIG. 12, the player status register (PSR) records the number of the interactive graphic data stream that is currently being played back, or the interactive graphic data stream that will be played back later. In FIG. 12, this number is written in bits 0 to 7 of the PSR 0 register. Therefore, even when the playback of the multimedia image is temporarily stopped and restarted, the interactive graphic data stream that was played back immediately before can be played again by accessing the PSR 0 register.

In a reproducing apparatus supporting a standard interactive graphic data stream and an on-demand interactive graphic data stream, it should be determined whether the stream number recorded in the PSR register 0 is a number indicating the standard interactive graphic data stream or the interactive graphic data stream on demand. Therefore, the reproducing apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention includes an ICS_usage flag for determining whether the number of the interactive graphic data stream recorded in the PSR register 0 is a number indicating the standard interactive graphic data stream or the interactive graphic data stream on demand. In FIG. 12, the ICS_usage flag is written to bit 30 of the PSR 0 register. Thus, if the currently playing stream is an on-demand interactive graphic data stream, the ICS_usage flag is set to 1, and if the currently playing stream is a standard interactive graphic data stream, the ICS_usage is set to 0.

In addition, in the on-demand interactive graphic data stream, the disp_flag flag is defined to indicate whether the stream should be displayed on the screen. In FIG. 12, the disp_flag flag is written in bit 31 of PSR 0. If the disp_flag flag is set to 1 when the on-demand interactive graphic data stream is ready to be activated, the playback device displays a menu start page on the screen to inform the user that the interactive graphic data stream is requirement ready for revitalization. If the disp_flag flag is set to 0, then the playback device does not display interactive graphic data on the screen.

On the other hand, when the disp_flag flag is set to 0 and the on-demand interactive graphic data stream is ready for activation, i.e. when the on-demand interactive graphic data stream is ready to be activated and the on-demand interactive graphic data stream should not be displayed on the screen, there are two ways of processing the on-demand interactive graphic data stream. In the first method, the playback device is configured so that the on-demand interactive graphic data stream is activated when the activation command is generated by the user. In the second method, the playback device is configured so that the on-demand interactive graphic data stream is not activated and the user command is ignored when it is generated by the user.

FIG. 13 shows a configuration of a player status register in which information relating to an interactive graphic data stream according to another embodiment of the present invention is recorded. In FIG. 13 shows a reproducing apparatus configured to record two types of interactive graphic data streams in separate PSRs. Thus, a case is shown where information related to the standard interactive graphic data stream is recorded in the PSR 0 register, and information related to the on-demand interactive graphic data stream is recorded in the PSR 11 register.

If the ICS_type field indicates the standard interactive graphic data stream, then the information related to the standard interactive graphic data stream is recorded in the PSR 0 register, and if the ICS_type field indicates the interactive graphic data stream on demand, the information related to the on-demand interactive graphic data stream is separately recorded in the register PSR 11. Accordingly, in contrast to the configuration shown in FIG. 12, the ICS_usage flag is not required to determine the type of ICS interactive graphic data stream. However, in the PSR register 11, a disp_flag flag is required to indicate whether a menu start page is displayed on the screen to inform the user that the on-demand interactive graphic data stream is ready to be activated and the disp_flag flag is the same as in FIG. 12. In FIG. 13, the disp_flag flag is written to bit 31 of the PSR 11 register.

Fig. 14 shows a process for processing a user-generated command to activate an interactive graphic data stream on demand.

According to FIG. 14, when the activation command is generated by the user, the playback device determines whether the on-demand interactive graphic data stream is ready for activation in the interactive graphic data decoder, and if the on-demand interactive graphic data stream is ready for activation, the on-demand interactive graphic data stream is displayed on the screen , the active state is set to receive a user command, and the device is ready to accept the user's choice of a button. If the on-demand interactive graphic data stream is not ready for activation, the activation command from the user is ignored or a message is displayed on the screen informing the user that the on-demand interactive graphic data stream to be displayed does not exist.

FIG. 15A and 15B show display states according to the values of the disp_flag flag for the configurations of the player status registers shown in FIG. 12 and 13, respectively.

According to FIG. 15A, when the disp_flag flag is set to 1, if the on-demand interactive graphic data stream is decoded and ready to be activated, the initial menu page is displayed on the screen, informing the user that the on-demand interactive graphic data stream is ready for activation. If the activation command for the interactive graphic data stream on demand is generated by the user, the first page of the menu is displayed on the screen.

According to FIG. 15B, when the disp_flag flag is set to 0, the start page of the menu is not displayed on the screen, even if the interactive graphic data stream is decoded on demand and ready to be activated. However, if the activation command for the interactive graphic data stream on demand is generated by the user, the playback device may be configured so that the activation command is ignored or the first page of the menu is displayed on the screen.

FIG. 16 shows a system menu of a reproducing apparatus in which menu items for turning on / off output of an interactive graphic data stream on demand are defined. If the user sets the item “display ICS on demand” to the on state, then the disp_flag flag of the status register described above, which stores information related to the flow of interactive graphic data on demand, for example PSR 0 or PSR 11, is set to 1. On the other hand if the user sets the "display ICS on demand" to the off state, then the playback device sets the disp_flag flag of the status register to 0. Thus, the disp_flag flag can be changed using The User Interface, by which is called the system menu.

In FIG. 17 is a schematic representation of a remote control that includes a button for turning on / off output of an interactive graphic data stream on demand. The user can set the disp_flag flag of the status register to 0 or 1 by pressing the corresponding button.

The following describes a reproducing method based on data configurations of an on-demand interactive graphic data stream and configurations of a reproducing apparatus described above.

In FIG. 18 and 19 show flowcharts of a method for reproducing a storage medium on which an interactive graphic data stream is recorded.

According to FIG. 18, at step 1802, an interactive graphic data stream is read from a storage medium that stores standard interactive graphic data streams and / or on-demand interactive graphic data streams. The read interactive graphic data stream is checked at step 1804. The type of the decoded interactive graphic data stream is checked at step 1806. If the decoded interactive graphic data stream is a standard interactive graphic data stream, then the decoded interactive graphic data stream is mixed with the video data and displayed on the screen at a specific time. in operation 1808. If the decoded interactive graphic data stream is an interactive graphic data stream On demand, the decoded interactive graphic data stream is mixed with the video data and displayed on the screen only if the activation command is generated by the user at step 1810.

In FIG. 19 shows a detailed flowchart of a method for reproducing an on-demand interactive graphic data stream shown in FIG. eighteen.

According to FIG. 19, if the decoded interactive graphic data stream is an on-demand interactive graphic data stream, then at step 1902, a disp_flag flag is read from the player status register indicating whether the on-demand interactive graphic data stream is displayed on the screen. If the value of the disp_flag flag is 1 in step 1904, then in step 1906 a menu start page is displayed on the screen, informing the user that the on-demand interactive graphic data stream is ready for activation. If at step 1908 the user enters an activation command when the displayed start page of the menu is displayed, then at step 1910 a menu page requiring the user command is displayed on the screen.

On the other hand, if at step 1904 the value of the disp_flag flag is 0, then nothing is displayed on the screen, and even if an activation command is generated by the user in operation 1920, at step 1922 the activation command is ignored. Although in FIG. 19 is not shown, even if the value of the disp_flag flag is 0, nothing is displayed on the screen, and if the activation command is generated by the user using a user interface such as a remote control, the menu home page is displayed on the screen.

When using the on-demand interactive graphic data stream according to the described embodiments of the present invention, it is possible to control the on-demand interactive graphic data stream so that it is displayed on the screen and disappears from the screen at a specific time, or is displayed on the screen only if the user generates a command.

According to the described embodiments of the present invention, the interactive graphic images, such as a button, can be controlled by using the on-demand interactive graphic data stream so that the button is displayed on the screen when the user generates a command.

In addition, an interactive graphic data stream specialized for a particular area can be configured by configuring various on-demand interactive graphic data streams for specific areas or chapters of AV data. For example, instead of buttons that perform established functions, the user may be provided with information related to the actors, properties and locations of the cameras, existing in certain areas, which includes a multimedia image.

In addition, the number of buttons on the remote control can be reduced by configuring the functions corresponding to the buttons of the remote control using the menu control method using an on-demand interactive graphic data stream.

Although some embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described above, those skilled in the art will appreciate that changes to these embodiments can be made without departing from the principles and spirit of the invention, the scope of which is defined in the claims and their equivalents.

Claims (5)

1. A method of reproducing graphic data from a storage medium for displaying an on-screen menu, comprising the steps of: decode graphic data, output decoded graphic data when an activation command is generated by the user if the decoded graphic data is the first graphic data, and decoded graphic data is output at a specific time, if the decoded graphic data is the second graphic data. 2. The method according to claim 1, in which the first graphic data and the second graphic data have identical or similar structures, which include a field for distinguishing between the first graphic data and the second graphic data. 3. The method according to claim 2, in which the first graphic data and the second graphic data have graphics_segment structures that include segment_type fields defining the type of the first graphic data and the type of the second graphic data, respectively. 4. The method according to claim 2, in which the first graphic data and the second graphic data have interactive_graphic_segment structures, which include a type field for distinguishing the first graphic data and the second graphic data. 5. The method according to claim 4, in which the type field is determined so that when the value of the type field is 0, then the second graphic data is displayed, and when the value of the type field is 1, the first graphic data is displayed.

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